


The Weight on her Shoulders

by KiraMae



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2017-12-28 16:17:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/993990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiraMae/pseuds/KiraMae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the pressure gets to be too much...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Weight on her Shoulders

She’d sworn to herself that the next time she saw Kai Leng, she’d kill him.

And yet he lived.

She’d told Liara that they would save Thessia.

And it had fallen.

Brashly promised the Asari Councilor that they’d recover the vital intel from the Temple of Athame.

And then watched Cerberus walk away with the Prothean VI.

Failure. After failure. After  _failure_.

Humanity, no, the  _galaxy’s_  best hope but… she was just one woman.

She didn’t know how long she’d been standing in the shower. She waited for the hot water to run out as it used to on the farm back on Mindoir, but the Normandy was the apex of technical engineering. Water heated instantaneously, no need for storage in a hot water tank somewhere; even as it drained away through the floor, it was fed back in to the water recycling system, filtered, purified, and reheated before showering down again on her bowed shoulders, the perfect temperature, the perfect amount of pressure.

She leaned her forehead against the wall, clenched fists above her head, water mixing with salt tears and dripping from her nose. She wondered how much longer she could turn a strong and noble face to the masses as they looked to her and cried  _save us_. When would she crumble under the strain of the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders?

The weight of a familiar pair of three-fingered hands settled there instead; she opened her mouth, and gave voice to a cracked sob that had been sitting inside her chest. It was followed by another, and another, as he pulled her back against his chest, wrapped his arms around her.

Her knees gave, but he held her against him, slowly lowering her to the ground. He said nothing, sitting against the wall and leaning his head against her back as she wept. Her shoulders shook, her chest heaved, and her throat turned raw as she released all the pain, the fear, and the loss that she’d held inside for too long. He held her, watched her back just as he’d always done, because he knew that she’d get back up and keep fighting, just as she’d always done.


End file.
